Apollo 12 - On the Ocean of Storms David M. Harland Apollo 12 - On the Ocean of Storms David M. Harland Space Historian Kelvinbridge Glasgow UK SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason, M.B.E., B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D. ISBN 978-1-4419-7606-2 -ISBN 978-1-4419-7607-9 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7607-9 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011922753 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA) except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether o r not they are subject to proprietary rights. Cover design: Jim Wilkie Typesetting: BookEns, Royston, Herts., UK Printed on acid-free paper Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Contents Illustrations vii Acknowledgements xv Acronyms xvii The Apollo program 5 How Pete missed being 'First Man' 10 Call signs and patch 12 Lunar surface experiments 15 Landing site selection 17 Preparing the space vehicle 30 Crew training 77 2. Moonbound 79 Countdown 79 Launch day 80 An electrifying ascent 103 Parking orbit 119 Translunar injection 127 Retrieving Intrepid 130 Checking Intrepid 144 Hybrid manoeuvre 155 Intrepid again 161 Into lunar orbit 166 Pinpoint landing 186 vi Contents 3. A visit to the Snowman 227 Where are we? 227 EVA preparations 233 First moonwalk 237 Sleeping over 316 Second moonwalk 332 Idle time 397 4. The voyage home 403 Rendezvous 403 Discarding Intrepid 421 Orbital photography 428 Leaving orbit 437 Science questions 443 Press conference 453 The final leg 463 After splashdown 476 The first 'rock fest' 497 Future prospects 510 Glossary 513 Index 517 Illustrations Chapter 1 George Low, Sam Phillips, Joseph Shea and Chris Kraft 9 Pete Conrad and Al Bean 13 Mission patch 14 Clifton C. Williams 14 Surveyors and the 'Apollo zone' of the Moon 19 Target in the Ocean of Storms 20 Detail of previous illustration 21 Detail of previous illustration 22 The crater in which Surveyor 3 landed 23 ALS-7 target ellipse 24 Crescent and Snowman 25 Simulator views of approaching the target 26 Contour map of Surveyor crater 27 ALS-5 target ellipse 28 Moonwalk planning 29 S-IC stage arrives 36 Hoisting the S-IC 37 S-II stage arrives 38 Hoisting the S-II 39 S-IVB stage arrives 40 Stacked S-IC and S-II stages 41 Details of the command and service modules 43 Command module in Downey 44 Preparing the CSM at the Kennedy Space Center 45 CSM complete 46 Details of the lunar module 47 LM stages arrive at the Kennedy Space Center 48 Checking the LM ascent stage 49 viii Illustrations The descent stage 50 Preparing the LM 51 Details of the launch vehicle adapter 52 Installing the LM in the adapter 53 Spacecraft ready for stacking 54 Completing the space vehicle stack 55 Rollout seen from the roof of the VAB 56 Rollout seen from beside the crawler 57 Apollo 12 on the pad 58 Launch Control Center 59 KSC 'train wreck' 60 Apollo 12 crew 61 Simulator training 62 One-sixth gravity training 63 Field training with the hand-tool carrier 64 MESA training 65 ALSEP extraction training 66 Hand-tool carrier training 67 Lunar equipment conveyor training 68 Rock sampling training 69 Surveyor activities training 70 Post-splashdown training 71 Science planning 72 October press conference 73 Al Bean shows off the ALSEP 74 Pete Conrad flying the LLTV 75 Chapter 2 Rolling away the mobile service structure 81 Breakfast on launch day 83 Suiting up 84 Walking out to the transfer van 87 Arriving at the pad 88 Al Worden, Guenter Wendt, Jack King and Walter Kapryan 89 Spacecraft ingress 90 Richard Nixon arrives at the Kennedy Space Center 93 Frank Borman and Thomas Paine 94 Skip Chauvin and Paul Donnelly 95 Jim McDivitt 96 Firing Room during the countdown 97 Spiro Agnew in the Launch Control Center 98 Liftoff in the rain 100 Liftoff (continued) 101 Apollo 12 is launched into a dark sky 102 Illustrations ix Gerry Griffin and Gerry Carr 104 SCE switch 108 Firing Room during the ascent Ill Acceleration loading during the ascent to orbit 114 Ground track to orbital insertion 115 How the vehicle generated lightning 117 Lightning striking the pad after liftoff 118 George Mueller after launch 121 Chris Kraft confers with Gerry Griffin 126 Acceleration loading during translunar injection 129 Flight plan for immediately after injection 131 Post-injection S-IVB sequencing 132 Overview of the Apollo 12 trajectory 133 A view of the S-IVB in space 135 Apollo probe and drogue docking mechanism 137 Earth shortly after translunar injection 139 Ground track for the early translunar coast 143 Pete Frank 146 Clifford Charlesworth 153 Don Lind and Paul Weitz 154 Hybrid manoeuvre 158 Glynn Lunney 167 Window contamination 168 Rules for a failed lunar orbit insertion 171 Flight plan for revolution 1 in lunar orbit 174 How the S-IVB missed its slingshot 177 Flight plan for revolution 2 179 Flight plan for revolution 3 181 Ground track in lunar orbit 183 Optical tracking of lunar landmark H-l 185 Details of the liquid-cooled garment 188 Tracking of landmark 193 195 Yankee Clipper after undocking 199 Flight plan for undocking and separation 201 Intrepid after undocking 202 Landing point designator scale 204 Descent orbit insertion to lunar landing 207 Earthrise 209 Target redesignation sequence 217 Propellant sloshing 219 Lunar module velocity plot 222 Chapter 3 Ed Gibson and Jack Schmitt 228